Chapter 15 OLIVIA #2
“It’s like seven-thirty and if we don’t hurry our asses, we’ll starve to death.”
She turns around and walks out of my room, dropping my pillow on the floor before she does so.
I pull my blanket over my head and groan. I’m not going to have fun today, especially with this throbbing ache in my core that I am desperate to relieve. Not only that but just feeling like I came up here for all the wrong reasons.
“Come on, bitch! Or I’m leaving without you!” she shouts from the other room now. “And get some snow boots. Snow came down harder than I did.”
“I did not need to know that!” I shout back at her and she chuckles.
I sit up as I yawn, stretching my arms above my head before jumping out of bed. “Give me ten minutes,” I holler at Alli as I grab some clothes out of the dresser.
But as I start to head toward the bathroom to get changed, my phone pings.
I rush toward it at my bedside, hoping that it’s my dad but instead I’m greeted with a text from an unknown number.
My brows pinch up in confusion as I open it, seeing that I still have zero bars and absolutely no cell phone service. And then my heart freezes and tremors all at the same time when I realize who it’s from.
how does it feel to be edged again, little reckless? u must be wound so fucking tight. I can take care of it, you know? just need u to fucking beg for it first
And then another text comes through.
don’t forget ur rings, love. might need ‘em later
I didn’t respond to him. I didn’t know how. But now as I walk with Alli through the forest toward the fire pit where the breakfast is supposed to be happening, staring at what he’d said to me, I can’t help but type out…
You’re fucking sick. Do you have cameras in my fucking room, Trace?
I send the text. The snow crunches beneath our feet and even from out here, we can hear voices carrying in front of us in whispered echoes. But right as I attempt to put my phone away, it pings again.
why baby? do u like the idea of being watched?
Where the fuck are you, coward?
come find me
Fuck you, asshole!
u know I can practically hear u screaming my name and it makes me fucking hard, Livie
“Helllooo?” Alli’s voice breaks me from the little bubble I’m in which I somewhat appreciate because I was starting to feel my blood boil, both with hatred and desire. But then I realize that she’d been talking the whole time I’ve been zoned out.
“Shit. Sorry, girl. What were you saying?”
I shove my phone away not wanting to give any more attention to Trace; my growing anger for him expanding like a water balloon.
Alli repeats herself, talking about her night with Banks and after about twenty minutes of walking, we approach the fire pit where dozens of other people are already congregating. Some are eating breakfast, others are just talking.
He’s here. I know he is. I can feel his eyes on me. He’s gotta be close by. Or maybe I’m wrong and he’s just got other people watching me. My body doesn’t feel on fire like it does when he really is nearby. But as I scan the faces surrounding me, no one looks my way; no one is watching me.
Damn it. He’s really starting to ensue actual paranoia in me.
Alli breaks off for the pancake table but I’m too anxious and distracted to eat right now. I decide to pull out my phone and try to send a text to my dad. But despite sending it and resending it, it still comes back as undelivered.
How the fuck was Trace able to text me?
I get curious and decide to test it; typing out a message to him.
Tell me where you are.
But it also comes back as undelivered.
I groan in frustration as I slide my phone back into my pocket. Trace can’t be far, right? But I don’t see any sign of him as I make my way through the clearing of trees and away from the majority of the crowd.
I feel a slight pang of disappointment. How is it that he seems to always have eyes on me, but he’s always out of sight?
My boots sink into the compacted snow as I pull my beanie down a little lower to keep the chill from hitting my ears, annoyed that I didn’t pack a thick enough coat to ward off the biting cold that’s also sweeping through my chunky, cable-knit sweater.
I decide to head back over to the fire pit for warmth, trying to decipher what makes this weekend so special.
Why I’ve been seemingly lured into the Pines this weekend over any other. Even my gut was guiding me here.
So far all I’ve got is one new memory from that night, a very ominous note that decidedly implicates me for something—something I have no recollection of—and a ghost from the past haunting me.
It’s not nearly enough for me to unveil anything new.
Though, of course, one thing that still rewinds in my mind is the knowledge I have on Broden.
He’s the only one I can truly think of who might have had ill will toward my brother.
And after recalling his ties with Seren, he might be the only real lead I have, not that it’s much.
But he seems to be slightly connected to all four victims in some way or the other, and when I try to rack my brain for any recollection of him being in the Pines the weekend of the murders, I come up short.
I have to figure out if he was there and if he knows anything. Someone here has to know something. I have a feeling, without a shadow of a doubt, someone here is guilty. The killer is here and I know I have to find them before the weekend is over.
Then a thought hits me. I got an invite.
I can’t be too sure if anyone else did but maybe the person who sent me the invite is the same person who left me the note.
The same note I keep crumpled up, now burning a hole in my pocket.
What if they think I did something? What if they know something?
What if they wanted me up here to play with me, to taunt me. But who could it have been and why?
“Well, well, well. Look what the black cat dragged in.”
The familiar voice causes me to stop in my tacks and look up. I catch a pair of blue eyes sitting a few feet in front of me on one of the fire pit seats. Someone I’ve been anticipating running into. Except now, he’s not wearing my brother’s fucking mask.
Sage and I were never really friends. He’s a year older than me and just like everyone else in this town, he moved on to MCU after high school.
I don’t know much about him. I just remember one day my brother came home from a game pissed that they’d lost and he was blaming it on some blue-haired kid who kept distracting Evrin, who was the team’s tight end at the time.
No one else has ever had blue hair so I always assumed it to be him.
There were a few times I did get to interact with him, and he seemed pretty normal.
And nice. Nice enough to not ever be involved with the likes of someone like Trace.
Trace wasn’t as harsh as he seems to be now, but even so, he was never really one for friends.
I think the closest people he ever considered his friends were those of the Cutthroats.
I obviously know he still has contact with Evrin, but Deck is dead and rumor has it the Banks and him had a falling out a while ago.
But I’ve been proven that rumors are just that . . . rumors.
But I also know that Sage and Evrin are a thing so maybe that explains it but not enough to validate the fact that he has something that doesn’t belong to him. And what the fuck did I ever to do any of them for them to agree backing Trace in his apparent task of torture?
I could avoid him. I don’t want any more problems. But I do want answers and maybe something he says can jog my missing memory. So I finish closing the gap between us, making my way over to him.
Sage looks down at the ground, his arms hanging lazily over the tops of his knees.
I think the last time I saw him was at my brother’s funeral.
Or maybe it was Seren’s. We had four funerals in the span of two weeks so they all kind of muddled together.
But we didn’t really talk then. So I don’t know what to expect from him when I approach.
“I want my brother’s mask,” I say bluntly as I finally stop in front of him, cutting to the chase.
He finally brings his eyes back up to mine, a devilish smirk strewn across his face. His hair hangs in his eyes as the reflection of the flames lights up the darkest parts of the blue in his them.
“Sorry, it’s not mine to give,” he says with a hint of trouble in his tone.
“Well, it’s not yours to have,” I counter, keeping my arms crossed over my chest as I stare down at him.
He grins.
“Touche. But I don’t have it.” He clasps his hands together before turning his eyes back down to the ground.
“Well then, where is it?” I ask, not backing down. I want what’s mine so I’m going to get what’s mine.
Sage looks back up to me, slightly annoyed at my persistence.
“Your boyfriend has it.” His answer is short, and my brows turn up in confusion. “My . . . Jensen?”
He chuckles, sounding almost offended. And then he speaks to me in a condescending tone. “Trace. But it’s cute you still consider that idiot to be your boyfriend. Trace won’t be happy to hear that.”
Idiot? I mean, sure, I’m not very happy with the guy right now but what’s the name calling for?
Jensen hasn’t been anything but nice. Unless of course, they have problems that I’m unaware of.
But I don’t care about any of that. Not when I feel like I’m being messed with and I don’t know why.
And not only that, he just admitted that he really is a little sidekick for Trace.
“What do you want?” I ask, putting a little more aggression in my tone, though I’m too cold and my teeth are chattering at this point.
“Honestly,” Sage starts as he stands up.
“I’m going to cut the theatrics. Hangin’ around a bunch of macho psychos makes a person feel superior, am I right?
” I look up at him in confusion as he steps up to me.
“I’m just here to help out a friend. That’s typically what friends do, Olivia.
Stick together even when times get a little messy. ”
I roll my eyes when he says this, knowing that he’s intending to make me feel bad. Confirmation that he likely was told something by Trace to paint me negatively but how can I even know what was said if no one will fucking tell it to me straight?
“I know we don't know each other that well, and maybe we’ll become friends at the end of all this but just remember that everything happens for a reason. Nothing is by coincidence, Liv.”
I tilt my head, hating that he’s leaving me to decipher his words instead of just speaking clearly like a fucking adult. What does he mean by that?
“Hey everyone! Time for truth or dare! If you want to play, meet over at the main fire pit in ten!” I look over to see Jensen waving everyone over toward where the main fire pit is; where we were last night.
I haven’t talked to him since our little argument, which I appreciate because I don’t think I can handle any part of him right now. Now with this impending feeling of doom hanging over me on top of the unknown that comes along with my masked stalker and his pals.
Sage turns to walk away.
“Wait!” I reach for his elbow to stop him. “What are you here for?”
Sage turns his head my way but doesn’t look at me. Instead, he squints his eyes out in the distance behind me. And then he nods his head while he whispers, “Ask him.”
I turn around to see what he’s talking about, and to my surprise I find Trace. Unmasked. Out in the distance. Watching from beyond the trees.
Everyone starts to make their way through the trees, walking past us. I let go of Sage’s elbow who doesn’t say another word before following everyone else.
He’s leaving and I have no new memories and even more questions than before. Though, I know it won’t be that easy. But I can’t give up.
“Olivia!” I look up to see Alli waving me over.
I take a few steps, but then I stop to turn back around, remembering Trace. But he’s gone.
Of course he is. I only see him when he wants to be seen. I huff in frustration, and then I head toward my friend to join her for a childish game of truth or dare.